194 



ENTOMOLOGY 



resemblance to the bees, owing to which it is supposed that the former 

 are able to enter the nests of the latter and lay their eggs. 



Alluring Coloration. The best example of this phenomenon is 

 afforded by an Indian mantid, Gongylus gongyloides , which resembles so 

 perfectly the brightly colored flowers among which it hides that insects 

 actually fly straight into its clutches. f 



Recognition Markings. Though these are apparently important 

 among mammals and birds, as enabling individuals of the same species 

 quickly to recognize and follow one another, no special markings for 

 this purpose are known to occur among insects, not excepting the gregari- 

 ous migrant species, such as Anosia plexippus and the Rocky Mountain 

 locust. 



Epigamic Colors. Among birds, frequently, the bright colors of 

 the male are displayed during courtship, and their evolution has been 

 attributed by Darwin and many of his followers to sexual selection a 

 highly debatable subject. Among insects, however, no such phenomenon 

 has been found ; whenever the two sexes differ in coloration the difference 

 does not appear to facilitate the recognition of even one sex by the other. 



Evolution of Adaptive Coloration. Natural selection is the only 

 theory of any consequence that explains the highly involved phenomena 

 of adaptive coloration. Against such vague and unsupported theories 

 as the action of food, climate, laws of growth or sexual selection, natural 

 selection alone accounts for the multitudinous and intricate correlations 

 of color, pattern, form, attitude, movement, place, time, etc., that are 

 necessary to the development of a perfect case of protective resemblance 

 or mimicry. Natural selection cannot, of course, originate colors or any 

 other characters, its action being restricted to the preservation and 

 accumulation of such advantageous variations as may arise, from what- 

 ever causes. As Poulton says, the vast body of facts, utterly meaning- 

 less under any other theory, become at once intelligible as they fall har- 

 moniously into place under the principle of natural selection, to which, 

 indeed, they yield the finest kind of support. 



